Veach to join Sage Karam for two race events in addition to challenging for USF2000 championship title

INDIANAPOLIS – Andretti Autosport announced today it has added driver Zach Veach to its Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear lineup at Infineon Raceway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Veach will drive the #77 Team Zakosi Data Backup car for the two events, joining the team’s full-time entrant Sage Karam for a two-car effort.

Veach currently competes in the Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda with Andretti Autosport and will continue his quest for the championship title at Road America and the Streets of Baltimore, in addition to his time in the Star Mazda machine. Veach has secured three USF2000 pole positions and one race win, along with eight top-10 finishes, putting him in third place in championship points.
  
In early 2011, Veach also competed in the Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 Winterfest Championship, a special five-race series, and captured the championship title with two race wins and three pole positions. Veach finished fifth in the overall 2010 USF2000 driver championship points, despite starting the season two races behind the rest of the field. He secured eight top-five finishes throughout the season, helping Andretti Autosport clinch the team championship title.

Zakosi Data Backup, sponsor for the #77 car, offers fast, affordable, secure, managed and unmanaged online data backup to small to medium-sized businesses. In addition to Zakosi, Retail Pro, ArtRotondo.com, ADS IT Solutions, Arai Helmets and OMP Racing are also partners on the #77 effort. 

Sanctioned by INDYCAR, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear is one of two series part of both INDYCAR's Road to Indy ladder system and the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development driver program. Veach will compete in two of the final three 2011 Star Mazda events, at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. on Aug. 27 and Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca on Sept. 18.

For more information, please visit www.AndrettiAutosport.com, www.ZachVeach.com or www.StarMazda.com.

ZACH VEACH, DRIVER, #77 TEAM ZAKOSI DATA BACKUP:
 “I’m really excited and grateful for the opportunity to drive in the Star Mazda Team Zakosi Data Backup car for Andretti Autosport with my friend and teammate Sage. We had a lot of success together last year in USF2000, and I think working together will be a great way to cap off the season. I’m as focused as ever for race wins, moving up the Mazda Road to Indy ladder, and ultimately reaching my goal: the IZOD IndyCar Series. This is a great step to achieve my dream, and I can’t thank the team and Zakosi Data Backup enough for the support.”

J-F THORMANN, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT:
"There is no doubt Zach will be successful in anything he attempts—both on and off the track. We recognize Zach’s talent in the car and want to give him the tools and resources to move up the ranks as he progresses. With Zach and Sage together again, we know we will have a strong Star Mazda team at Sonoma and Laguna, and we look forward to seeing them both on the podium soon." 

-END-

About Zach Veach
Zach “Ziggy” Veach is a 16-year-old autoracing driver who competes in INDYCAR’s ‘Mazda Road to Indy’ USF2000 National Championship Series, an important open-wheel stepping-stone to a career in the IZOD IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500. In 2011, Veach captured the USF2000 Cooper Tires Winterfest Championship, on the heels of placing fifth in the 2010 season, despite missing two race events. In 2010, Michael Andretti signed Veach to his team, Andretti Autosport, while Veach was also being named one of CNN’s “Intriguing People” and was also nominated for Sports Illustrated “Sports Kid of the Year” award. In addition to his racing, Veach is an advocate for safer driving in conjunction with Oprah Winfrey’s “No Phone Zone,” and is the national spokesperson for FocusDriven, an advocacy group for victims of motor vehicle crashes involving drivers using their cell phones. In 2010, Veach released his first published Android application through his phone-app building company, ZaAPP, releasing urTXT, in the Marketplace for Android to help consumers avoid dangerous text messaging while driving and helms his own safe driving program, Ziggy’s Safe Driving, which hits 25 markets across the country each year. Veach has been a guest or profiled on a variety of national platforms including NBC’s The Today Show, CNN’s Headline News, ABCNews.com, Oprah Radio’s The Gayle King Show, The Los Angeles Times, AOL.com and is a blogger for RACER magazine. The son of a national truck and tractor-pulling champion, Veach entered his sophomore year of high school this past fall and released his first book, 99 THINGS TEENS WISH THEY KNEW BEFORE TURNING 16, on March 2, 2011. For more information, please visit www.ZachVeach.com.

About Andretti Autosport
Based in Indianapolis and led by racing legend Michael Andretti, Andretti Autosport fields multiple entries in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Andretti Autosport also campaigns multiple cars in Firestone Indy Lights, the Star Mazda Championship and in the USF2000 National Championship. The company boasts three IZOD IndyCar Series championships (2004, 2005 and 2007), two Firestone Indy Lights titles (2008 and 2009), one USF2000 championship (2010) and has won the Indianapolis 500 twice (2005 and 2007). For more information, please visit www.AndrettiAutosport.com.

About Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear
For 2011, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will be a major part of the Mazda Road to Indy and will feature a 10-weekend, 11-race schedule, all on major race weekends and most with IndyCar. Two weekends are with the American Le Mans series, and one – the GP3R at Trois-Riviéres, Quebec – is a double-header with Indy Lights. Rising stars from around the world will be watched by more than a million fans as they compete for prizes valued at $1.5 million, including a scholarship to move up and race in the 2012 Firestone Indy Lights series. Drivers 16 and older are welcome to compete and the Star Mazda Championship also features the Expert Series for drivers 30 and older. The Star Mazda Championship features standing starts, wheel-to-wheel racing at 160 mph and budgets a fraction of other top open-wheel ladder series. For more information on the Star Mazda Championship please visit www.StarMazda.com.